Gleason: Steelman saves Army from despair

Sunday

Oct 7, 2012 at 2:00 AM

WEST POINT — Army quarterback Trent Steelman walked to the sideline with a familiar feeling of heartbreak, dejection, anger. You name the negative emotion and Steelman probably felt it. He had just watched Raymond Maples get tackled short of the goal line on fourth down from the 1.

Kevin Gleason

WEST POINT — Army quarterback Trent Steelman walked to the sideline with a familiar feeling of heartbreak, dejection, anger. You name the negative emotion and Steelman probably felt it. He had just watched Raymond Maples get tackled short of the goal line on fourth down from the 1.

Boston College led by four points and only 2:03 remained, another excruciating loss burning in Steelman's belly.

Except the game wasn't over. Steelman quickly realized that point himself. Army had two timeouts left. A three-and-out stop and Army would get the ball back with about a minute left. There was more game left. The gamest of Army football players lifted his head and hoped for another chance.

The alumni and fans were starting to make noise. They wondered if Rich Ellerson was the right guy to coach this team less than two years after leading the Black Knights to their first bowl win in 25 years. They had a hard time with last year's 3-9 record, a harder time with the 0-4 start and the hardest time with an uninspiring 20-point loss to Football Championship Subdivision (Division I-AA) Stony Brook seven days earlier.

Twenty-point losses to I-AAs are hard to defend. They are impossible to defend when putting forth the kind of lifeless effort Army gave on this same field. The practice-week message was simple. Turn your ears off to the critics. Forget the record and the pressure and the expectations.

"You know,'' senior linebacker Nate Combs said of the theme, "be positive.'' It took at least three senior-called team meetings to hammer home the point. "Coach was harping on us getting emotional and inspiration from each other,'' Combs said, "and I think we did that.''

Combs and his guys forced a three-and-out and Army had the ball at BC's 38 with 1:03 left. Now Steelman had the football in his hands, an image that creased his body all the way back to being a kid quarterback at Bowling Green (Ky.) High. Steelman was playing on aching ribs and who-knows what else, his status as a blood-and-guts leader long ago sealed. But he already had been spectacular with two touchdown runs and textbook reads off the option. It wasn't enough, not yet.

"It's something that you want to happen every game,'' Steelman said of having the game in his hands, "to be in that situation.''

Steelman took an option left on third-and-1 at the 29 and saw an opening, an opening in BC's defense, an opening in Army's season. He burst through the hole as if vaulted out of Army's game-day cannon. Steelman wasn't touched until he reached the 1. Nothing short of a 18-wheeler was going to stop him from sprinting into the end zone with 45 seconds left.

Combs and his guys held the fort once more and Steelman walked off a winner, this time supported by the scoreboard digits: Army 34, Boston College 31.

"He's had to battle, not just in this game, but to stay in practice,'' Ellerson said of his quarterback. "He needed one more chance. Our defense gave him one more chance, and he finished it.''

"I kind of got a little bit emotional coming off the field,'' Steelman said, "just knowing that this team has fought through so much. We could have easily rolled over, but we didn't.''

Steelman was a little boy the last time Army beat Boston College. The Black Knights, known as the Cadets then, administered a 49-7 butt-whipping at Chestnut Hill, Mass. "Take The Hill,'' then-Army coach Bob Sutton had implored in the locker room moments before the '95 game. It began a 4-2 season-ending run that became the first wheels of momentum leading to Army's record-breaking 10-win season in '96.

On Saturday, Army took the hill off Stony Lonesome Road, across from Lusk Reservoir inside Michie Stadium. Army's season was on the line back in October 1995, as it was now, another loss essentially turning 2012 into a two-game set against Air Force and Navy.

Steelman nodded when presented the must-win scenario. He was still wearing his football uniform, but now it sparkled beneath a victorious smile. Steelman got another chance with 1:03 left. Soon, he gave Army's season another chance.